Day care decision is crucial one for parents

Lynn Celmer

Monday

Aug 27, 2007 at 12:01 AMAug 27, 2007 at 1:31 PM

When it comes to choosing a day care center for your child, the most important thing is to be a smart consumer.

When it comes to choosing a day care center for your child, the most important thing is to be a smart consumer. Just like you would research the vehicle you drive your child around in before making the big purchase, it is important to research all of your options.

“Visiting the facility is the best advice that I would give any parent before making the decision,” said Karla Morey-Bernazzani, manager of education for La Petite Academy. “Parents should definitely feel comfortable with the management at the facility. Ask if you can spend five minutes with the person who would be your child’s teacher, and that may give you a good idea if that is the right place for your child.”

Parents are always encouraged to bring their children with them to the day care center for a visit, but one mistake often made by parents is letting the child have final say on the day care decision, according to Mary Rizzardini, owner and director of Grand Avenue Preschool and Daycare with locations in Western Springs, La Grange and La Grange Highlands.

“It is not a decision for a 3-year-old to make,” Rizzardini said. “As there are good days and bad days, I also encourage parents to come back more than once.”

Another big mistake that parents make is to just focus on things that are overt when making that initial visit to the facility, according to Morey-Bernazzani.

“While things like the safety, security and cleanliness are important, there are other things that parents should be looking for,” she said. “Once a day care facility passes a parent’s surface inspection, they should be asking questions about the specific programs offered.”

Morey-Bernazzani added that parents should see if the teachers are interacting with the students in a way that affects their learning. Look to see if they are asking the children open-ended questions during discussions and if they are working with children both in small groups and also one-on-one.

“By looking at these questions, it will help parents to understand if this is a good program for their child and assure their child is developing in a healthy and proper way,” she said.

To help parents know what to ask during a day care visit, Morey-Bernazzani said La Petite Academy provides visitors with a parent checklist when the come in.

“I think they appreciate that, because we are educating them on thing to look for,” she said. The parent checklist is also available on the La Petite Academy Web site, www.lapetite.com, under the Parent Checklist link.

Rizzardini said an important deciding factor when choosing a day care is also staff stability.

“I think it is important that there is the same director there for many years,” she said. “When you have someone leaving after a year, it makes if very hard on the staff, which in turn makes it hard on the children.”

She added that parents should also consider asking what the center’s enrollment rate is, meaning do families stay for a year and leave or are they for the long term.

Ellen Schilling of Western Springs said that the stability of the center personnel was very important to her when deciding on day care for her daughter.

“I want to know that the same teachers are going to be there with my daughter,” she said. “I have had experiences with other places with too much turnover.”

She said the level of parental involvement had an impact on her decision.

“I wanted to know how active were the parents with the center and if I could drop in anytime,” she said. “I also asked if they have parental volunteers for classroom activities.”

Regardless of if you’re new to the area or have lived here for quite some time, there are plenty of resources available when looking for day care, according to Rizzardini.

“A good place to start if you are new to town is to check with your Realtor,” she said. “They tend to know what people are liking and what is available in the area. For those who are not new to town, word of mouth is always your best bet.

“If your kids are in a ballet or you attend a play group, talk to the parents and ask them where their kids go and what they like about it.”

Shilling agreed that her day care search primarily involved talking to other parents.
“I did an Internet search and once I had a list of places we might go to, it was a lot of word of mouth,” she said.

Although the decision is a difficult one, the key is to see what kind of facility fits your parenting style and if they go along with that, said Rizzardini.

She said, “I think parents should learn to trust their gut whether there is a good reason or not.”

Day care checklist

ASK
• Do teachers receive program training, support and ongoing training? What type?
• Is there a mix of teacher-initiated group activities and child-chosen individual activities? Ideally, you should notice approximately four to five large group times, 15 to 30 minutes in length, and two 60-minute sessions of choice time with over 15 activities for children to choose from, allowing the teachers opportunities to provide individual attention.
• Does each child have her own record of growth and progress? Ask for examples.

LOOK FOR
• Are there suggested involvement activities for parents? How do you learn about these activities?
• Does the after school program have a balance of activities including quiet time for homework, group meeting time, outdoor time and project time?
• Is an activity and lesson plan posted and is the teacher following it?

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